1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to imitation trees made by using artificial materials to resemble natural trees.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Planting and growing a natural tree in a flowerpot require watering and cumbersome trimming. When the tree is displayed indoors, furthermore, the leaves fall causing the room to become dirty, the watering fouls the floor, and the tree must be moved to a place where it can be exposed to the sunshine requiring laborious work. In the case of a so-called bonsai (potted dwarf tree), the tree must be constantly deformed and pruned over long periods of time to realize graceful tree shape and appearance as desired. Even a skilled person finds it difficult to shape the trees as desired. In recent years, therefore, the demand for imitation trees has been increasing.
There has been proposed an imitation tree made by selectively cutting graceful portions from a natural pine tree or a cedar, joining them to a trunk or branches of another tree using an adhesive or by insertion or the like means, so that the tree may appear as a natural tree (e.g., Japanese Patent Publication No. 30401/1982, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11300/1984). However, the imitation potted dwarf trees using natural trees without roots arouse problems of loss of strength and color fading due to withering of the trees. Moreover, the branches and leaves inevitably break and fall due to aged adhesive and deteriorated insertion. It has been attempted to apply resin coating material as means for preventing the drop of strength of the trees and color fading, which, however, is not perfect, and the drop of strength and color fading due to the passage of time are not avoidable.
There have further been proposed imitation trees which are made to resemble natural trees by using artificial materials such as wires, papers, cloths, plastics, synthetic resins, etc. The imitation trees using such artificial materials require none of pruning, watering, trimming, and are suited as indoor ornaments making it possible to easily realize a tree of any desired shape. Therefore, a person can easily enjoy the atmosphere of potted dwarf trees and can further enjoy making the imitation trees as a creative hobby. In this case, the imitation tree is produced by winding a color tape on a single wire, bundling such wires to form trunks and branches, attaching any desired ornamental materials such as fruits or blossoms to each branch, and finishing in any desired shape and color as disclosed in, for example, a microfilm of Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open No. 82364/1982. There has further been proposed an art according to which a metal mold is produced in advance for the whole tree or for part of the tree, and a molten synthetic resin or a cast iron is poured into the metal mold to mold the tree (e.g., see Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 108344/1995).
However, the imitation trees using these artificial materials have their respective defects.
First, the former imitation tree uses a wire which is a single wire having a diameter of usually about 1 mm and serves simply as a core material for reinforcement. The wire itself produces no sense of beauty and must be wrapped with a color tape or the like material. Therefore, laborious work is required and, besides, the tree is ruggedly finished presenting only a rough expression. In this case, furthermore, the imitation tree is not capable of expressing fine texture of a natural tree and exhibits poor appearance.
In the case of the latter imitation tree molded by pouring a synthetic resin or a cast iron into the metal mold, the shapes of the tree and branches are determined by the metal mold, and the shape of the imitation tree cannot be changed unless the metal mold is changed. Changing the metal mold requires a considerable amount of cost. In practice, therefore, it is difficult to change the metal mold so frequently. Besides, the synthetic resin and the cast iron have poor plastic deformation which makes it difficult to artificially change the shape of the tree and of the branches after molded. Properly speaking, the imitation trees of this kind have a meaning in that they are finished in their own different shapes depending upon the idiosyncrasies of the persons who make them. Therefore, the above-mentioned imitation trees of which the shapes and branches cannot be changed (or can be changed with difficulty) fail to offer interest for both the persons who make them and the persons who enjoy watching them.
In any one of the above-mentioned imitation trees, when ornamental materials imitating fruits and blossoms are to be attached to the individual branches, minute work is required to attach materials such as fruits and blossoms to the individual branches using mounting means such as a bundling wire or an adhesive. In other words, cumbersome work is required, and knots of bundling wires and traces of adhesive appear conspicuously to deteriorate the sense of beauty.